First of all, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to several people.
1) Mark Macguire: Congratulations, Big Mac.
2) Mick Folley: 'Cause all of the fics I've MSTed lately make me feel
as if I've had a sledgehammer bashed into the side of my head...
besides, he's a fellow Long Islander.
3) Peter David: Another fellow Long Islander and the one who's works
got me interested in writing.
4) Lynxara & Dinobot: The Munihousen MST (coming soon) would have
just been a pipe dream if not for their aid and riffs. Lynx... may
your Avatar RIP, for it has gone to a better place.
5) Jess: Welcome aboard as a pre-reader and I can tell you're going
to be a great help.
6) Tekka Knight Warhammer: I still miss you, buddy.
Sorry, I don't know what brought all of that on. Anyway, the fic's
after the .sig...
The Flashman
(Proud member of The Church of Tsukino Usagi)
Loyal G-Fan
Church of Crossover Couples... coming soon.
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Dojo/3105/
May The Spirit Preserve You!
_______________________
I stood there, in a blackened room, with only the sound of my
breathing keeping me company.
I waited.
Several clicking and whirring sounds, like machines preparing
themselves, echoed off the far away walls.
I waited.
A voice, Trident's deep voice, asked over an invisible projection
system, "Are you ready for your first test?"
I nodded... and waited.
"GO!"
I let my body go into automatic and raced forward, the darkness
giving me no clue as to what danger would strike first.
My answer soon came as a wall of arrows whistled towards me. I
ducked and rolled under them, letting them bury themselves in the
wall behind me, somewhere in the shadows.
That had been too easy. I knew that was only the warm-up.
On cue, a pneumatic hiss made my body instinctively back flip to
avoid the triple row of spikes that shot up from the floor; they
would have impaled me if my powers hadn't know what they were doing.
The next threat came in the form of a giant pendulum with a bladed
end. Instead of jumping out of the way, however, my hands drew the
little pistol at my side and fired three blue energy bolts at the
rope of the pendulum. The metallic part separated and rushed by me,
missing my head by inches.
Sometimes I wish my powers wouldn't see fit to cut things so damn
close.
A row of laser cannons popped up from the ground and shot at my body,
which decided to jump over the beams and fire my gun (which I'd
dubbed the Flash Blaster) at them. The cannons exploded, leaving
only a twisted mass of metal that looked more like abstract art than
a weapon.
I was ready for my next challenge, which came in the form of two
Terminator look-a-likes.
The skeletal robots were too close for me to use my Blaster, so I
holstered it and let my body go into it's martial artist mode.
The first robot got hit by a forward savate kick, while the second
suffered the effects of a right cross. All that did was knock them
off their feet for a few seconds; I used that brief pause in the
action to draw out... my Sentai Saber. Ta daaaa!
The Sentai Saber is a sword... a BIG sword. For reference, I'd say
that it's about the same length as Ukyou's battle spatula... but that
could just be my bias talking. The hilt is a golden color and has a
dark blue jewel resting just under the base of the blade. The blade
itself glittered silvery, even in the almost pitch black room.
Swinging the Saber around, I hacked off the head of one of the
robots and watched it collapse to the ground as a pile of scrap metal.
The other robot's hands mutated like liquid metal; into long, sharp
claws and I was forced to block more times than I could count to make
sure I didn't become hash.
Jumping high into the air, I hit the blue jewel on the side of my
sword's hilt; as the sword glowed blue and golden lightning crackled
off the blade, I brought the sword down in an overhead slash and
cried, "CROWN FINAL CRASH!"
The slash cut the robot in half from head to sternum, but the energy
in the Saber disintegrated the body before it hit the ground.
"Clear," I heard Trident say, although it sounded... different.
"YE-HAW!" I exclaimed, "I LOVE being able to do this stuff!"
That was when I realized that Trident's voice hadn't come from a
loudspeaker. It had been coming from right next to me.
Well... actually, I realized that after Trident kicked me in the gut
with both feet and sent me flying across the room.
Holding my aching bread basket and looking up at the Atlantian Bio-
Warrior, I complained, "I thought you said I was clear."
Trident frowned down at me and said, "So you let your guard down.
NEVER do so on the words of others alone; they might be lying or
mearly misinformed."
Then he said what he always said around me, "You still have MUCH to
learn."
FFML SENTAI
FIVEMAN
By: The Flashman
(How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?)
For a period of five months, Space Sailor Moon's and my day went
pretty much like this...
Wake up at an ungodly hour, physical exercise with Trident, eat
breakfast, target practice with Trident, martial arts training with
Trident, lunch, weapons training with Trident, the obstacle course
type training I mentioned previously, get whopped by Trident for
letting my guard down, dinner, meditation training with Trident, and
then to bed at an even more ungodly hour.
Then the whole damn process would repeat itself.
Instead of boring you with the details of this rather monotonous
cycle, I'll give you a brief rundown of what I learned about myself
and Spacey (and the first thing I learned about her is that she HATES
being called that). Although, I might go into an anecdote or two, if
I feel the story behind it would be interesting.
To begin with, I guess I should say that, when I mentioned earlier
that I let myself go on automatic, I REALLY meant "go on automatic".
To let my martial arts skills work, I have to consciously stop myself
from trying to tell my muscles what to do. I can give suggestions to
my body for battle plans, but I can't try to mentally implement them
or I'm on my own... and my fighting skills hadn't developed that much
to try and do that. It's difficult to do, since I'm fighting
instinct, but I guess since I was training all day, every day, I was
able to somewhat get the knack of it enough that I didn't look like a
complete fool... just a partial one.
When left to its own devices, my body can really move. I can keep
pace with Trident and I'd rank him at a Spider-Man level speed, maybe
more, if he goes all out (he's not as agile though). I have the edge
in agility; I remember Space Sailor Moon once told me, whenever I did
agility exercises, that it looked more like I was bouncing than
jumping.
I'm rather strong as well. I can dead lift 900 lbs fairly easily,
but that's not saying much when compared to the likes of Ryoga,
Jotarou Joestar, A-Ko, Nuku Nuku, Dragon Ball Z characters, or any
female who's getting revenge for having her chest exposed.
My "spandex" outfit isn't really spandex at all. It's a rare
material called Sentainium that's got unique abilities. You see, the
energy of any attack over a certain level that hits me, is redirected
and release as heat energy in a "spark effect". It still hurts like
hell when I get hit (and I mean it REALLY hurts) and I can be knocked
out if I'm hit hard and often enough. Fortunately for little old me,
it takes a lot of effort to cut, burn or flat out vaporize me.
Now, let's talk about a subject I REALLY like: Weapons.
At my side, as I mentioned earlier, is a small silver colored
blaster gun, which I call the Flash Blaster. It can fire small beams
of blue energy bolts, and while it's good at wreaking machinery, it's
only able to jolt or knock over most life forms. Why? I don't know.
Maybe it has to do with the way it's calibrated or something.
Also, I learned that if I rotated the butt of the gun up next to the
muzzle and hit a small button on the side, a knife size blade would
pop out and I'd have a weapon I call the Side Cutter. (It's at my
side and it cuts things. Side Cutter.) Unfortunately, the first
time I discovered this particular feature I nearly punched a hole
right through my left palm. It may not have been one of the
stupidest things I've done... in contrast to things that happened
after that. (Sigh) A lot of things. Sad things...
Huh? What was that? Oh... Sorry, I lost my train of thought for a
second. Memories. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the weapons...
My Sentai Saber is my main weapon for close up battle and looks like
an average sword. Of course, it isn't.
You see, on the side of the golden hilt is a blue gem. If I press
the gem, some kind of energy, (I'm guessing it's ki) will gather from
the air and into the blade. If I swing it around and shout, "Crown
Final Crash," it will be unleashed on whatever the blade of the sword
hits.
I have another weapon, but I hadn't discovered it yet, so I won't go
into it until I get to that point.
As for Space Sailor Moon, well... her powers are pretty freaky.
Thanks to her combination Magical Girl/Kaiju heritage, she can take
some serious hits and get back up again. She'll feel it, but she'll
get up. Although, because of the awkwardness of her physiologically
necessary shoulder crystals, it's almost impossible for her to fight
in a hand-to-hand situation. She can occasionally trip someone up
with her tail or deliver one hell of a shoulder block (and I speak
from experience there...), but that's about it. Her center of
balance is so out of whack that a lot of the full body stuff would
just end up with her "turtled" on her back. She's thinking of
getting herself enrolled in boxing classes, but somehow, I can't see
it.
Anyway...
Fortunately for her, she compensates for her weakness in physical
stuff with projectile abilities and an aim that's so accurate, she
could hit a termite, dead center, a thousand yards away.
Of course there's the necessary tiara and scepter weapons...
She can take off her tiara and it grows to become a gold bow with a
glowing white "string"; when she pulls the "string" back, a white
arrow forms in the space it should be, and she lets fly.
In fact, the first time I saw that weapon in action has a bit of a
funny story attached to it. At least... it's funny when I can
swallow my pride.
Spacey and I were in target practice, I using my Flash Blaster,
Space Sailor Moon just standing there with no weapon, and Trident
watching us while letting out little grunts that didn't sound too
different if I either hit or missed.
Finally, my targets ran out and Trident reported, "Out of a possible
3000, you have scored 2150. Not bad."
I grinned under my helmet. For Trident, "Not bad," translated to,
"Impressive."
Full of myself, I said, "Okay, Spacey. Let's see what you've got."
Space Sailor Moon narrowed her eyes, reached up for her tiara and I
made a mistake.
I blinked.
When my eyes opened after their brief need to keep themselves clean,
Space Sailor Moon had already enlarged her tiara to bow size and was
firing so fast her arm was a blur. Target after target after target,
went down under her rapid assault and, from what I could see, she
hadn't missed yet.
OOOO! Flashman's ego has just been nailed by a right cross and is
staggering around on rubber leg street!
Then, she switched in mid simulation and started firing it left
handed, with the same accuracy as before.
CRACK! What an uppercut! Flashman's ego is cut wide open!
Then, as a final insult, she tossed the bow up into the air, caught
it, fired off a behind-the-back shot and knocked over the last target.
What a brutal assault! How is Flashman's ego still standing?!
After a long pause, Trident spoke.
"Impressive," he said, "3000 out of 3000. The execution was
needlessly dramatic, but impressive all the same."
Flashman's ego, watching out for the left... AND HE'S HIT WITH THE
RIGHT! FLASHMAN'S EGO IS DOWN! THERE'S THE TEN COUNT, IT'S ALL
OVER!
You see, for Trident, "Impressive," translated to, "YOWZA!"
Properly put in my place, and glad no one could see my mouth hanging
open, Space Sailor Moon walked up to me, shrunk her tiara to its
normal size, put it on, and said, "DON'T call me Spacey."
Anyway...
Her scepter weapon looks just like the Moon Scepter (AKA the... gack.
.. Cuttie Moon Rod [and that's the only time I'll EVER call it that])
but it's pure gold in color. On the cry of "Moon Corona Beam
Halation," she can unleash from it a spiraling blast of yellow,
lightning bolt shaped, energy.
I'm just glad she never misses with that. One time, she tried to
use it in target practice and blew out the entire far wall... which
was made out of Adamantium.
We made her promise to save that particular weapon for special
occasions.
Her last (and CERTAINLY not least) ability, the Gravity Tornado, is
a little touchy for me to talk about; it's discovery left a dent in
the exact shape of my head in the floor of Training Room 5. (And I've
still got the lump to prove it.)
From her shoulder crystals she can fire bursts of telekinesis, which
she can either use to pick up other things (including people) and
throw them away so hard that most break the sound barrier. She can
also use it on herself and obtain the power of flight. However, she
can't do both at the same time, as she discovered one day and left a
dent in the exact shape of her rump on the other side of the room
where the dent shaped like my head was.
As for Trident... he was okay as far as trainers went and a pretty
nice guy to talk to when we met him casually, which didn't happen
often.
However, the poor guy is so damn ignorant about the human race's
ways, that sometimes I spent entire training sessions trying to
explain a really stupid or crude (sometimes both) wise crack to him...
and even then, I don't think he understood a lot of it (and he will
ask REALLY awkward questions when he's trying to understand). Space
Sailor Moon tells me that he looks "cute" when he has that look of
child like confusion on his face, so I guess his ignorance isn't a
completely bad thing.
On the other hand, he's one hell of a fighter with his Capoiera
style. I can't think of too many people who can match up with him in
pure martial arts ability. He could probably teach Ryu a thing or
two... but then, Trident IS a couple thousand years older and more
experienced, so I guess that counts for something.
In a way, I guess the three of us became friends. Although, Trident
still calls me, "One of the most bizarre humans I've ever met."
Of course, when it was discovered that Trident was supposed to be a
member of Fiveman then I guess the issue of us being friends or not,
took a back seat to us having to get along.
I had "cleared" another obstacle course; however, this one had been
especially difficult and when Trident told me I was clear, I didn't
whoop for joy or let my guard down. I was too exhausted to do
anything consciously, so when my arm blocked Trident's punch, I
didn't even notice it until I saw a bright glow forming where our
arms had connected.
Looking up in incomprehension, I saw that it wasn't our arms, but my
wrist device that was glowing a blazing white. The white light
lifted off from my device, hovered in mid air for a second, then
landed on Trident's right arm, where it mutated into the wrist device
marked "III".
"By Neptune..." Trident whispered, "What is this?"
That was when FFML Boss's voice rumbled, "IT IS A SIGN. YOU ARE ONE
OF THEM. A FIVEMAN. FLASHMAN, SPACE SAILOR MOON, AND NOW YOU, MUST
SEEK OUT YOUR OTHER TWO MEMBERS... WHO EXIST SOMEWHERE IN THE
MULTIVERSE."
Trident looked at me, my labored breathing the only sound which
punctuated the silence.
Finally, a ghost of a smile formed on his face for the briefest of
moments and he said two words.
Not THOSE two words. He probably wouldn't have understood what he
was saying if he had. Besides, he HATES pro wrestling. "It is a
mockery of the warriors trade," as he so bluntly puts it.
What he said was, "Training... completed."
If I had known even a third of what was to come, both the good and
the bad, I would have acted as if I had signed my own death warrant.
Instead, I jumped up into the air, pumped my fist, and shouted,
"WAHOOOOOOOO!"
TO BE CONTINUED IN...
Part 5: Advent of Tanker